Search

I have a great knee length stretch denim skirt I have been wearing for yonks (love that word!) and have worried a bit about what I would do when it wore out. I have a lovely white one as well, but you have to be pretty much in serious summer mode, have the correct size, shape and colour of unmentionables on and be sure the rest of the outfit doesn’t scream “lady golfer!” so it doesn’t get quite the amount of wear the blue one does. Enter the Zellers selling out sale. A nice Gloria Vanderbilt denim skirt for a nice cheap price. Of course, it doesn’t quite fit. *sigh* But it is close. Really close.

That darned gap! After turning it over in hand and mind a few times and working on the pants, I decided to try to fake this one and see if I could get away without opening any seams or making bulky, uncomfortable darts through the waistband. Or wearing a belt. Belts don’t seem to work on skirts for me. Removing the waistband and taking in the flat felled seam or adding new darts would be the right way to do it, but no. A twenty buck denim skirt does not get the champagne alterations, whether it has Gloria ($$$) Vanderbilt’s name on it or not.

Inspired by the capris (now shorts) I did last week, which have a lovely band of elastic inside to prevent gaps, I dug out some wide elastic and cut a piece a little shorter than the back half of my skirt waistband.

Pinned it all in place and did a pretty decent job of spreading the stretch so I wouldn’t have one or two big clumps of gathered skirt. Fast forward (known as “fuff-ing” chez nous. Pronounced like “puffing”) through a few attempts to sew it down. 1. Sew on the right side and stop at each belt loop. No. 2. Sew on the right side and go over the belt loops. No. 3. Sew from the wrong side, blast over the belt loops. Yes! Some of the belt loops are now a bit skewed, but I will not wear a belt with this skirt, remember?